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My current way of storing my opened collection is to take a set apart, put into Ziplocs, and put them back in the box. Pretty straight-forward. The Star Wars Advent Calendars (and other themes like Kingdoms / City) challenge this process a bit, as you would need 25 small bags to maintain the box structure. I could try putting them back in the slots without bags, but I don't trust the small pieces to stay put.

So how do you guys store these things? If you do have a way that keeps the box as well I would be happy to hear your strategy.

You could put the pieces into their respective spaces in the calendar, close the doors and then tape the box flap down, say a couple of small pieces of tape on each of the non-attached edges. That would keep the parts where they should be.

I use either 2 x 3" or 3 x 4" clear re-closeable bags, can't remember which size, but anyway, I just put them back in their respective spot and close the door so the top and bottom corners are "stuck." It's hard to explain, but if you've opened the calendar carefully, the doors should basically stay in place when you push them in just far enough. Just glancing at it, you wouldn't know it was ever opened because the doors are all basically flush with the box.

I don't have one of these, so I don't know if this is feasible, but my first instinct would be to store the assembled models in their various spots. Then just disassemble them (if I was going to use the calendar again) when I got it out next year. Not having seen the actual calendar, I've no idea if the assembled models would FIT in the spots assigned to them. Even if they didn't, if I was worried about the pieces "travelling", I'd probably just stick the pieces together in a way that DID fit in the slot.

My Star Wars one I assembled and then bagged, the figures go into my figures pile. I honestly just don't care about keeping them together, and the other one I bought was just parted out. I used to keep the boxes, but found them to be more trouble than they were worth in the long run. Now I only keep boxes on the expensive sets.

emmtwosix wrote:I use either 2 x 3" or 3 x 4" clear re-closeable bags, can't remember which size, but anyway, I just put them back in their respective spot and close the door so the top and bottom corners are "stuck." It's hard to explain, but if you've opened the calendar carefully, the doors should basically stay in place when you push them in just far enough. Just glancing at it, you wouldn't know it was ever opened because the doors are all basically flush with the box.

I'm not putting the parts in bags, but I'm using your strategy of the stuck doors and it works pretty well. Thanks!

cas wrote:I keep the boxes of the expensive sets intact and store the boxes of the smaller sets folded down inside them.

I'm liking this idea, my boxes are getting out of control. All I've done so far is put smaller boxes in larger ones (thanks to all the empty space lego puts in boxes, I have most of the Alien Conquest line in my Earth Defense HQ box )